MEMPHIS, Tenn., Sept. 16, 2009 - Baptist Centers for Cancer Care is partnering with the American Cancer Society to host a prostate cancer support group, Man to Man®.

The group will meet at 6:30 p.m. in the Ann L. and Joseph H. Powell Library, located in the physicians’ office building adjacent to the hospital at 6025 Walnut Grove. Monthly support meetings will be held on the third Thursday of each month in the Powell Library at 6:30 p.m. July’s meeting will be held September 17.

Designed to help men and their families cope with prostate cancer, Man to Man provides a comfortable setting for discussion, education and support through the recovery process. Spouses and family members are encouraged to attend.

According to ACS, more than 1.8 million men in the United States are prostate cancer survivors. About one in six men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime, but only one in 34 men will die from the disease. About 90 percent of prostate cancers are diagnosed by a physician in the early stages – usually before symptoms occur.

Baptist Centers for Cancer Care boasts Memphis’ first adult myelosuppression unit– a specialized cancer unit for high-risk patients with compromised immune systems – as well as the first adult cancer genetic counseling and testing program in the area. A 2002 grant from the Baptist Memorial Health Care Foundation provided for an additional genetic counselor and funded a nurse navigator program, designed to guide patients through the cancer journey. This grant also provided Baptist the opportunity to expand its stem cell transplant program to include allogeneic stem cell transplants, the process through which healthy donor cells are transplanted into patients with certain cancers.

For more information, please call the American Cancer Society at 901-725-8620 or the Baptist Centers for Cancer Care at 901-226-4039.

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